After a tornado demolished their mobile home, Jim and Kathy Moore sold their property in rural southeast Sedgwick County. They wanted to use the proceeds to furnish their new home in Wichita after insurance didn't stretch far enough. But that money didn't stretch far enough either.
Gary Dickerson and Chris Batcheller faced a similar issue in Andover: They were able to rebuild, but didn't get enough from their insurance policies to completely furnish their new homes.
It's been nearly a year since an EF-3 tornado damaged or destroyed more than 200 homes in rural Sedgwick County, Andover and rural Butler County before dissipating April 29.
Only a few people were injured, with Kathy Moore receiving the most severe injuries when the tornado lifted her home, turned it and dropped it. She broke her back in four places.
Depending on where you look along the tornado's path, you can see what looks more like a new development than an area hit by a tornado. In other spots, you'll still see remnants of destruction.
Dickerson, who moved back into his rebuilt home on Hedgewood Circle in Andover a few weeks ago, said a couple of rooms are unfurnished because insurance payouts didn't cover replacing everything.
"My advice to anybody is to turn on a video and record everything in your house," Dickerson said, adding his neighbors who also had to rebuild their homes had similar problems.
Vonda Copeland, a Kansas Association of Professional Insurance Agents board member from Manhattan, said taking images of your belongings is a good idea — just make sure the images are backed up somewhere online. She also recommends keeping a digital list of your belongings and talking with your insurance agent to know what is covered: Will your policy cover full replacement or the depreciated value of your belongings? Will the payout for your home cover current market prices?
"It's probably a good conversation to have befo re you need it," she said.
What to know about your home insurance policy before disaster strikes
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Having no insurance or not enough insurance is one of the biggest problems people trying to rebuild have faced, said Butler County Emergency Management director Keri Korthals.
"People that are not directly involved in it may seem more short term like 'oh well the search and rescue is done, you found everybody, you cleaned up all the tree debris … schools have reopened,'" Korthals said. "I don't think, unless you are living it, people realize how long it can take for that recovery process to go on. It's years rather than six months until everything is normal again."
Many of those affected are now taking a closer look at their insurance. They've also added different security measures and taken other precautions to prevent future losses.
But the tornado did bring one positive: It united neighbors.
Photos lostTha t night, Batcheller had convinced his son to come with him and his daughter to the movies. His house on the east edge of Andover was empty when the tornado hit.
"It would have been a very dangerous situation had (my son) been in his room when it hit," he said.
No wall was left standing. And they never found the bathtubs or washer and dryer.
A neighbor called while they were at the theater but the call got disconnected. The neighbor then texted a photo of a pile of rubble. Batcheller asked what that was. It was his home.
Neighbors on both sides at the end of the cul de sac had a similar fate.
Some of them were home, but they escaped uninjured.
The day after, Batcheller and his neighbors sifted through the rubble. Some walked out into the field where debris had blown.
Family photos are one of the main things people lost that they weren't able to recover.
Batcheller was thankful that he was able to find some of his family photos thr ough an Andover tornado lost and found Facebook page. One photo made it 5 to 10 miles from his home and was found near Benton.
The Moores and their daughter, Jamie Seipel, lost many family photos, including ones of Seipel's late husband and daughter.
Kathy Moore recommends people create a digital version of their photos and store them on the internet.
"Back 'em up," she said with her finger pointed. "Back 'em up."
Kathy Moore talks about what she and her husband Jim endured after their mobile home in eastern Sedgwick County was destroyed while they were in it on April 29, 2022.
Preparing for the futureLike others, Moore has changed some of her habits.
She has added weather alerts on her phone. And she is more tuned into watching TV meteorologists when the conditions are bad.
Moore's husband, daughter and grandson have all had different levels of PTSD from the tornado. Moore said she's "blanked it out."
The Moores were home with their dog, a Yorkie named KC, when the tornado formed nearly on top of their mobile home on 137th Street.
Forecasters had predicted the potential of severe weather, but there was no warning of a tornado before it hit.
The tornado lifted their mobile home, turned it and dropped it. Somehow, it didn't damage three sheds about 15 feet away.
Jim Moore was able to crawl out from under the debris. He heard a cry. It was his wife.
He lifted up a pile of walls, roofing and furniture, freeing Kathy Moore.
He hugged her and started crying, telling her he loved her.
Sitting in a recliner in his new home in the Indian Hills neighborhood in Wichita, the 68-year-old, who is hooked up to oxygen, still gets teary-eyed thinking about almost losing his wife of 37 years.
Jim and Kathy Moore talk about what they've all endured since their home in eastern Sedgwick County was destroyed by a tornado on April 29, 2022.
He suffered a hematom a in his elbow, but doesn't know if it happened from the tornado or from his struggle to free his wife.
"We still have each other," Kathy Moore said, sitting in a recliner next to her husband.
Moore said she's doing "a lot better than a year ago" and hoping to avoid surgeries the doctors have suggested. She spent a week in the intensive-care unit and a month doing rehab.
The Moores, Seipel and her son moved to Indian Hills after realizing it would cost too much to rebuild where they had lived.
Insurance paid them what their home had been valued when they bought it in 2015 and not at today's much higher replacement cost. Their insurance also didn't help with a rental while waiting on a new place.
The new home has more space and a basement for extra protection from severe weather.
Seipel, who feels more anxious now when it storms, added an emergency plan of where to go and a kit that includes water, food, a flashlight and battery-pow ered radio.
"(The tornado made) us a little more diligent in making sure we have safety protocols in the home," she said.
At Batcheller's rebuilt home, a former storage room in the basement has been reconstructed to be a safe room with a concrete ceiling and steel door, just "in case something ever comes again."
"We did it because it's good peace of mind," he said.
He and his family plan to move into their rebuilt home Monday.
Piper Batcheller moves a box of her belongings into her family's newly built home in Andover on Thursday. The Batcheller home was destroyed by the April 29, 2022 tornado and now Chris Batcheller and his two kids are about ready to move in.
The homes around Batcheller's are rebuilt or very close to being finished. Batcheller said the builders had ordered parts, like windows, months before they usually would to combat shortages in the supply chain that hasn't caught up since the COVID shutdowns.
Bat cheller's insurance agent had talked him into additional coverage when he moved into the home in 2021. His only complaint with insurance had been not covering the cost to replace all of his contents.
Batcheller and his family have been luckier than some.
Damages by the numbersIn all, 180 homes in Andover and rural Butler County had structural damage or were destroyed. Another roughly dozen businesses and about the same number of government or city buildings were damaged or destroyed.
Another 22 homes in rural Sedgwick County had structural damage or were destroyed.
The early damage estimate was $40 million for all the homes and buildings damaged and destroyed, but the actual cost will be much higher. Korthals guessed rebuilding the Dr. Jim Farha Andover YMCA could cost as much as the initial estimate for all losses.
In rural Sedgwick County, where the most obvious residential damage is still evident, emergency officials considered seven homes destroye d, three homes more than 50% destroyed and 12 homes with significant or minor damage.
Insurance ended up considering an eighth home destroyed. Four have been rebuilt. Among the remaining four, one has the frame of the home up and the three others have an empty spot.
The Moores and Seipel sold their property to the neighbor. The neighbor, also hit by the tornado, has a new home as well.
The owner of one of the other three destroyed homes is living in an RV on the property. There is a hole where the home used to be. A neighbor used a tractor to help clear away the debris. Other strangers who came to volunteer helped clean up as well.
"We will end up building eventually," said a family member on the property who didn't know if insurance had been an issue. "We just don't have the money right now."
Of the 14 homes damaged or destroyed in rural Butler County, four have permits for a new roof and five have permits to "rebuild or make repairs and add additions to their existing structures," Butler County Director of Community development David Alfaro said in an email.
One of the rebuilds is done, he said.
An official did not respond with information detailing how many homes in Andover have been completed.
A year after tornado, Andover YMCA works to reopen water park. Here's when, what will be new
United frontEveryone says the devastation helped unite their neighborhoods.
Even though they have moved away, the Moores speak very highly of their old neighbors.
Jose Contreras tried to help rescue Kathy Moore before Jim Moore, thinking another tornado was coming, told him to leave and "save your life."
The Contreras also helped the family clean up their property.
Hundreds of people came from out of town to help those affected by the tornadoes. Many also donated to a United Way fund that helped Batcheller and others.
United Way has so far spent just over $250,000 helping 73 families. Donations have raised close to $900,000.
Not all the outsiders who came to the tornado-stricken neighborhoods were there to help. Batcheller said police got into a high-speed chase with someone found looting his home.
Another neighbor, armed with a gun, shooed off a looter trying to steal copper from their basement, he said.
The neighborhood started a Facebook group to keep a better eye out for each other.
"I'd say we were friendly before but I really think the tornado sort of solidified that," he said, adding they have a neighborhood BBQ planned for this summer.
Dickerson said the neighbors where he lives are also closer now than ever.
Dickerson, his wife, Mila Dickerson, and their cat were home and took cover just before the tornado hit. He heard the windows shatter and thought that was it, until he emerged from the basement.
The house was gone.
Mila Dickerson went to a friend's house while Gary Dickerson looked for their cat. The cat came back. He stripped out of his wet clothes and fell asleep in the northeast corner of the basement, in the only room not damaged.
He was awakened by firefighters with flashlights hours later and chased them out of the house. He later called the firefighters to apologize.
He was in shock.
Things didn't get easier in the next few months as he battled with insurance.
Insurance wouldn't pay out for an expensive necklace his wife had received as a gift, since its value couldn't be proven, he said. The money they did get to replace items was based on depreciation, meaning the dollars they got couldn't replace what they had.
Insurance didn't provide enough money to rebuild his home, he said, until the builders showed him that he also needed to claim additional fixes, like the destroyed fence. The additional dollars stretched far enough to cover the home, but not the way it was. He had enough money for the fencing supplies, but not the labor, so he will do it himself.
It's been a process for him, but at least he's back in his home.
Looking down Hedgewood Circle, it's not easy to know that a tornado cut through the area just a year ago. All the homes have been rebuilt or are nearing completion.
But it depends on where you look. The redone homes don't have any grass. Many of them have sheds donated by Epic Church.
And many of the mature trees behind Dickerson and his neighbors' homes snapped in half. The homeowners now have a view of Prairie Creek Elementary School, which has been repaired and looks like it was never damaged, and the heavily damaged Andover YMCA.
A couple homes around the corner, in the same development as Dickerson, are just foundations. The homes around there are further behind in the rebuild process.
On the bright side, neighbors gone through the stresses of rebuilding together, he said. They talk about their problems with insurance and sh ow each other changes they made to their homes to stay within the range of money they received.
"Now we are walking through each other's homes," he said, "whereas before you just waved to them."
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